air max 95 online

cheap jordan shoes,Best and most complete selection of 100% authentic guarantee, seven days no reason to return, cash on delivery.

St. Gregory of Nyssa never denied for a moment the duality of matter and spirit, as described by Plato, but he prefers the Pauline and theological duality of the will of the sinner and the will of God. The integration of the two extremes can be effected only through the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, by which the redemptive mystery of the risen Christ is applied to man. The perfection of the Christian, therefore, consists in participation in the mystery of Christ. What man must do to achieve this participation, apart from the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, is explained by Gregory in his De instituto christiano.(30) What Gregory proposes to teach in this work, written specifically for monks, is that Christian perfection is the goal of life and that it is possible of attainment because of the knowledge of the truth that God has provided for those who wish it. What St. Gregory understands by knowledge or gnosis is the knowledge of the distinction between good and evil (Heb. 5:t4) or the difference between true good and apparent good. Ultimately, it is the knowledge of God himself as revealed in the word of God and expressed in the tradition of the Church. But true contemplation of the Scripture is given only to those who act under the impulse and guidance of the Holy Spirit.cheap air jordan 6 And how does the monk prepare himself to receive the Holy Spirit? St. Gregory answers: He who desires, therefore, to lead his body and his soul to God in accordance with the law of religion and to consecrate to him a pure worship .. . must make the faith which the saints have taught in the Scriptures the guide of his life and he must give himself up to the pursuit of virtue by obeying this faith perfectly. He must free himself completely from the chains of earthly life and put away once and for all any slavery to what is base and vain. By this and his life, he must become wholly God's possession, knowing well that he who has faith and purity of life has the power of Christ as well, and where there is the power of Christ there is also deliverance from the evil and the death that ravage our life.(31) For St. Gregory, therefore, baptism is the pledge of the work of the Spirit in man and the Eucharist is its sustenance, but the Christian does not arrive at the full stature of Christ until he exerts increasing efforts in the ascetical life. "For the body grows without us," says Gregory, "but the measure and beauty of the soul in the renewal of its conception, which is given it by the grace of the Spirit through the zeal of him who receives it, depends on our disposition:air jordan 13 outlet to the degree that you develop your struggles for piety, to the same degree also the grandeur of your soul develops through these struggles and these efforts."(32) Eventually the soul can reach the heights of gnosis, which is "a mutual compenetration, God coming into the soul and the soul being transported in God." This is the high point of agape.(33) In Homily XI on the Song of Songs, St. Gregory describes the three stages in which God revealed himself to Moses: first in the light of the burning bush, then in the cloud of the exodus, and finally in total darkness. Similarly, the soul first finds God in the visible things of creation; but as the soul advances, the intellect serves as a cloud to cover everything sensate so that the soul may be prepared to contemplate that which is hidden; and when the soul has abandoned all earthly things, so far as is possible to human nature, it enters the sanctuary of the knowledge of God, completely enveloped in the divine darkness. It is this experience of God in darkness that St. Gregory calls true theology (theognosis). St. Gregory has been described by Harvanek as a dogmatic theologian, a philosopher and an ascenco-mystical writer.(34) His writings serve as a link with the great theologians of Alexandria, with Maximus and with the Byzantine school. According to Bouyer, the teaching of St. Gregory had three well-defined effects on Christian spirituality: it was popularized by Macarius of Egypt (+ 390) among the monks; it was further developed by Evagrius Ponticus (+ 399); and it prepared the way for the writings of the pseudo-Dionysius (+530).